No more Dells for me

Originally Posted by rennD

Sorry to hear that. I have not had these experiences personally.

Because it was a known problem, I have a feeling their tech support were on guard. Throughout the conversation the guy was trying to bait me into saying it was my fault. I figured it out and ran around it. He continued, and eventually blamed me for the video card dying.

I was livid. I complained enough about this on notebookreview.com, but I was just plain pissed. It was a known issue. Just replace the stupid card and I'd be on my way. Rather I get accused of breaking the card, and the bastard on the phone threatened my warranty saying he had it recorded that I stated it was my fault. I said screw it and called AMEX.

I will NEVER buy HP again. Dell, I've had problems before, but they've been fair in the end. HP basically told me to piss off. Dell were upfront with the Nvidia issue, and took care of their customers. HP were sneaky little shats about it, and tried to con people. I give my money to Dell. SMYD HP.

I feel your pain on the Dell frustration.

Bought 3 laptops for Christmas a few years back for the girls and got "promotional" pricing. Long story short, every laptop died before the payments were all made and out of warranty. Repeated complaining, calls, emails got me know where. Finally quit paying for them. They turned it over to a collections dept. Once I got the first letter I called and explained the situation, pleaded for the best deal he had, we all know they will come down if settled on the spot, and he sympathized with me. Cut the amount to 1/4 what I owed and told me how to file a response with the credit bureaus.


Dell will never see another penny from me.

Chas

Originally Posted by ChasDen

I feel your pain on the Dell frustration.

Bought 3 laptops for Christmas a few years back for the girls and got "promotional" pricing. Long story short, every laptop died before the payments were all made and out of warranty. Repeated complaining, calls, emails got me know where. Finally quit paying for them. They turned it over to a collections dept. Once I got the first letter I called and explained the situation, pleaded for the best deal he had, we all know they will come down if settled on the spot, and he sympathized with me. Cut the amount to 1/4 what I owed and told me how to file a response with the credit bureaus.


Dell will never see another penny from me.

Chas

Sorry that it happened man, but really, how long were you paying for these? Notebooks from any manufacturer (and let's be real, they're all built in Malaysia/China no matter who you buy from) aren't built to last for the long haul. Is 1 year too early, sure, but you take that bet if you don't pay for the extended warranty. These are machines you carry around and beat the hell out of. These aren't desktop computers that just sit and work day in and day out.

Two rules to always know when purchasing your next laptop:

1. Always extend your warranty. Figure in the $200+ for the 3 year warranty (and possibly accident coverage) into your final costs.
2. Don't expect notebooks from Dell/HP/Apple/Toshiba to be Toughbooks. They just aren't.

I've owned Powerbooks, Inspirons, XPS, and HP, and all of them were saved by warranty. I don't care how much you say you baby your system and are super surprised there is a hardware issue. You carry around a freaking computer in a backpack, you will have issues.

[JE3146]

Originally Posted by sodomanaz

Sorry that it happened man, but really, how long were you paying for these? Notebooks from any manufacturer (and let's be real, they're all built in Malaysia/China no matter who you buy from) aren't built to last for the long haul. Is 1 year too early, sure, but you take that bet if you don't pay for the extended warranty. These are machines you carry around and beat the hell out of. These aren't desktop computers that just sit and work day in and day out.

Two rules to always know when purchasing your next laptop:

1. Always extend your warranty. Figure in the $200+ for the 3 year warranty (and possibly accident coverage) into your final costs.
2. Don't expect notebooks from Dell/HP/Apple/Toshiba to be Toughbooks. They just aren't.

I've owned Powerbooks, Inspirons, XPS, and HP, and all of them were saved by warranty. I don't care how much you say you baby your system and are super surprised there is a hardware issue. You carry around a freaking computer in a backpack, you will have issues.

I must be the exception with a Compaq that's over 4 years old and until recently was still on it's 1st install of windows. I used it for school, at least 3 out of 5 weekdays and usually every weekend. Went in backbacks, in a case, but went everywhere. Not a hardware issue with it except that it's a slow pile of @(*&$ compared to new ones(God I want a macbook....... )

Originally Posted by JE3146

I must be the exception with a Compaq that's over 4 years old and until recently was still on it's 1st install of windows. I used it for school, at least 3 out of 5 weekdays and usually every weekend. Went in backbacks, in a case, but went everywhere. Not a hardware issue with it except that it's a slow pile of @(*&$ compared to new ones(God I want a macbook....... )

My boss went two years with a Compaq (an HP machine) which was a headache from the start. I did my best to keep it running for him, but the wireless card and eventually the motherboard shat out on him. He destroyed it despite my wanting to purchase parts.

Compaq was never meant to be high end, and even more so after HP purchased them to be their dirt cheap introduction to their (HP's) machines.

Everything you find in this thread is anecdotal. No real answers beyond simple experiences. That's all you can really expect from these threads. My HP experience I hope was telling... the Nvidia 8400/8600 video card problem was near industry-wide (Apple, Dell, and HP addressed the issue), and made headlines on all technology news sites and blogs.

The only one who shat on the consumer and tried to pull a quick one? HP. They released a BIOS update that would help to keep the burnout from happening until AFTER the 1 year warranty was up. They sort of snuck that in, and hoped no one would notice. That doesn't work in today's world.

Spend your money any way you want to. Just do a little bit of research on this issue and see what I ran into. Dell added additional time to warranties, (I believe it was one year on top of current warranties on machines with those cards) and I haven't heard any complaints in getting them to honor it. HP did the same, but for only certain machines, discluding MANY machines that have that card. I was one of those. I was also not the only one, as I've talked to others with the same custom build who were denied coverage.

SMYD HP!